Thalia's Mission
by Redfur
Summary: Thalia Grace has been given a mission of her own by Lady Artemis. She needs to find a sixteen-year-old demigod who hasn't even been claimed yet. But there's something Thalia knows that the others don't. This demigod? He might not even exist.
1. Prologue

_Prologue_

I knew what I had to do.

And yet, here I am. What is this crap? I'm not going to hitch-hike all the way to Philadelphia to find some kid who doesn't exist, and even if they do exist, what do I care?

Yeah, well, that's what I told myself. In reality, I would never disobey orders. I'm too scared.

My name is Thalia. I'm sixteen years old and I think I should warn you, right off the bat, that I'm not normal, not even by demigod standards. For one thing, everyone wants to kill me, and for another, I am partially immortal. Glad we got that cleared up.

Yeah, so this kid that allegedly lives in Philly and might not even be real: his name is Andrew Moore. Allegedly. And he's allegedly a half-blood. Gee, you don't say?

Lady Artemis thinks that, for some reason, he's been ignored by almost everyone: gods, satyrs, monsters, other demigods…that's why he's sixteen and still hasn't been claimed or even heard of at camp. And she wants _me_ to find him. Great. Great.

I can't see what's so special about this Andrew kid that he's been ignored for half his life, good Zeus, he might not even be a half-blood. He might not even exist. What happens if I get to Philadelphia and I can't even find him? What happens if he was killed by monsters by then, or—or—!

I don't even know why I'm freaking out. Something just doesn't feel right about this. I need to calm down.

CALM DOWN?

Dear gods.


	2. Chapter 1

_Chapter 1_

"Can I sit here?"

I started and looked up. I was on the underground, coming from Detroit, waiting for my stop in Cleveland. There was a woman towering over me, referring to the empty seat next to me.

"Uh, s-sure," I stammered. I made room for her.

She sat down and didn't say another word. What a creeper. You don't just ask to sit next to a sixteen-year-old punk-looking kid with a gun and a knife in her backpack!

Well, she didn't know that last bit…eh. Sucks for her.

I spent the last few minutes of the ride fidgeting with my ring and trying not to stare at the woman. There was something weird about her face…something missing…

She didn't have eyebrows.

I did a double-take, then immediately averted my eyes so that I didn't seem rude. Well…ruder.

A computerized voice called my stop and I got off the train in a hurry. What was wrong with me? Plenty of people don't have eyebrows…right?

I knew I was overreacting. Loner as I am, I always get nervous when I'm alone in a strange place I don't know with weird no-brow creepers. (Because I've been in that situation a gazillion times before.)

I stepped onto the platform and nearly ran to the stairs. I was eager to be out in the fresh air. Or as fresh as Cleveland air can get. I had to find another underground station, or maybe take another bus to Harrisburg, then a train to Philly. I checked to see how much mortal money I had left—about enough for half a bus ride to Harrisburg. Damn. There went the _easy transportation_ idea.

Suddenly, I knew what I had to do. I had to find a school. Where there were schools, there were half-bloods, and where there were half-bloods, there were satyrs. A satyr could probably help me.

I set off at a decently brisk pace to find a coffee shop or somewhere with a phone book. I realized how hungry I was—I hadn't eaten since yesterday's dinner with Lady Artemis, when she'd told me that I had to leave for my mission _tomorrow_. Thanks a lot (which I mean in the most respectful way possible!).

I shrugged to myself as I stepped inside a coffee shop. If I didn't have enough mortal money for a bus ride, I might as well spend it on something else. I walked up to the cashier at the counter and realized with a jolt that he didn't have eyebrows either! Was this some sort of idiot "style" in Cleveland?

He frowned at me—or, at least, I think he did. It was sort of hard to tell from his lack of eyebrows. "C-can I help you?" he asked, with an air of a person that was new on the job.

"Yeah," I said. "You got a phone booth in the back?"

"Straight down the hallway, to your left, and opposite the bathrooms," he muttered.

"Thanks." This time, I was too scared to care about being rude. I literally knocked over a little kid as I ran down the hallway to the phone booth. I didn't bother to tell him sorry.

I leaned against the wall next to the phone book, trying to catch my breath. What was so horrible about eyebrows? Or, rather, lack of them? I almost felt like I was having déjà vu. Of what? No-brow creepers in Cleveland? My gods, what a joke.

I grabbed the phone book and started flipping through it backwards for no apparent reason. I was out of luck. By the time I had reached Parkinson's Academy, I thought that maybe I should just ask a policeman or something, but I was a half-blood. Half-bloods stay out of other people's business at all costs. So I sighed and kept reading. I was on page four—page four!—before I found something promising: Baker's School for Troubled Individuals. Jackpot. I really wished I'd started from the beginning like a normal person.

"Okay, let's go," I whispered to myself, and turned away from the phone booth. I nearly tripped over my own feet when I saw who had been watching me.

Cashier No-Brow.


	3. Chapter 2

_Chapter 2_

I could say that I wasn't surprised. I could say that I tricked the monster with words and got out without drawing too much attention. I could say that I saw it coming.

But those would be lies.

_Why did it not occur to me?_ Idiot as I am, most things don't occur to me until they're staring at me in the face or whipping my butt. Or in this case, both.

"You made a mistake."

I stared at the guy with a slight frown on my face. I opened my mouth stupidly, but nothing came out.

Then, something happened. The bones where his eyebrows should've been started to jut out slightly. Cashier No-Brow's eyes began to morph to fit this new shape. They changed from watery blue to a cold, hollow black. His pupils contracted till there were no more and in the light, they took on an odd, redish glint. They began to slant downward like the eyes of an animal; they were reduced into snake-like slits.

Snake.

"Mistake?" I muttered, inwardly cursing myself silly. "Mistake is an understatement."

He hissed. His tongue was forked. "We can do this the easy way, or the hard way, Hunter."

I raised an eyebrow (which is more than I can say for him). "Do I have a choice?"

He let out a hiss that I suppose was a laugh. "Such cheek!" he said gleefully. "It's so much more fun when they think they can win!"

I felt my blood run cold. "W-what are you, anyway?" I snapped.

"Well, what do you think I am?"

I would've like to say that he was creepy monster-cashier with no eyebrows, but that wouldn't have done either of us any good. "I'm not here for guessing games," I growled, trying to sound as composed as I could.

His face fell. "Well, then, I might as well kill you now," he said, sounding a little disappointed.

Suddenly, I was very unsure of myself. "What?" I asked him, before I could stop myself.

The snake-dude giggled, and his face lit up again as though this was all a giant tease. "Such fun!" he muttered crazily, twisting his hands around each other and rubbing them together like he'd been waiting for this his entire life. This was…a real monster? This was a joke, right?

Yeah, _joke_, my eye. But fun? You might say it was fun.

I still had the phone book in my hand. My backpack was lying on the floor, zipped up tightly so no one could see its contents. No way I could reach my knife or the gun without drawing the monster's attention to my pack. What were snakes' weaknesses? The monster was beginning to morph again, this time in his body. He was transforming into a giant, venomous, and most likely man-eating serpent. This was my first test.

_Think, think, think!_ I willed myself, but nothing came to mind. The monster was growing larger and larger till I thought it would bust the ceiling.

"You had a chance," it said. "You could've just gone to the police and they wouldn't have told you anything. But you had to use the phone book—_backwards_."

I frowned. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"SILENCE!" the monster shrieked. In the front of the coffee shop, people were starting to point and scream. I don't know what they saw in the serpent, but whatever it was, it obviously wasn't good. "You will NEVER make it! You will NEVER find the boy!"

The boy. The demigod. Was this monster's sole mission to make sure I didn't go to Baker's to find the half-blood's satyr?

"YOU IDIOT!" the serpent screamed, now speaking in ancient Greek. "DO YOU THINK JUST _ANY_ SATYR WILL HELP YOU?" It was almost as if it'd read my mind.

I had absolutely no idea what it meant. I had more important issues to deal with. I looked up to survey my surroundings and nearly fainted.

We had company.


	4. Chapter 3

_Chapter 3_

I admit, this monster discovery was not nearly as surprising as the first one. When one monster's scented a half-blood, they're likely to alert their monster buddies, and before you know it, you're dead.

Or something like that.

Anyway, looking back on the situation, I think I overreacted on the whole. I guess I was just so nervous and anxious to get the mission over with that I completely forgot how adept I am at monster-fighting, and I don't mean to brag. Even two giant venomous serpents? Hell, I've faced giants five times their size. One at a time, of course, but that's not the point. The point is that I should not have been freaking out, and now that I'm actually thinking about what happened that day and after it, I am now slightly concerned with my sanity. But I'm sure you are too, and were a long time ago, so…s'all good.

But I _was_ freaking out! And I suppose I should tell you the real reason. I've just realized that I can't delay it any longer or else none of what I'm going to tell you will make any sense. So, be prepared to sit for a spell and think. If you're not prepared to sit for a spell and think, go and get your energy out and come back when you're ready, because this _is_ going to take some brain-work. I DON'T CARE IF YOU'RE ON VACATION, PUNK!

Moving right along.

Because I suck at explaining stuff, I'm going to write it out. The date is…yesterday. (See what I mean?)

"Thalia?" Lady Artemis called from the mouth of my tent that I shared with Phoebe. "Thalia, I need to see you."

I glanced up from my reading and blinked, forcing myself to attention. (You know how hard it is to try to pay real attention to a nine-year-old girl?) "Hm? What?"

She raised an eyebrow slightly, her lips pinched and eyes cold, though her voice sounded kind. "Thalia Grace, in my tent. Immediately, please."

I felt my stomach clench. I always hate it when Lady Artemis gets mad at me, I feel like I'm letting her down, even though she's always still polite and even nice when she's angry at her Hunters. It's a quality that is sometimes fine, but generally verging on creepy. Gods, tell me something about this world that _isn't_ creepy!

I stepped into Lady Artemis's tent preparing for another lecture on behavior and respect, but instead, the goddess briefly handed me a pouch of drachmas and a small, elaborately carved wooden box.

"Keep these in your pack," she instructed, "and sit with me at dinner, please. _Do not_, I repeat, do not open the box. You may go now."

I bowed my head and took the items, then headed back to my own tent. I was glad beyond relief I didn't have to sit through another talk feeling miserable and pathetic, yet her curtness told me that my mistress was angrier with me than ever. Why, oh _why_ couldn't I learn to behave myself? I'm sixteen years old and I still don't know the proper moments to speak, how to address an authority, or even how to start a conversation without sounding idiotic. I'm just plain awkward!

I'm like Pandora. If you say to me, "Whatever you do, don't open that box!" all I want to do and all I think about is what will happen if I open the damn box. I kept wondering about the container Lady Artemis gave me until dinnertime. Were these items some sort of…punishment? Why would she give me money? I don't need money! I probably would've refused the drachmas if I hadn't been so afraid of upsetting Lady Artemis even more. Have I mentioned how cowardly I can be?

When dinner came, I sat down next to Lady Artemis around the campfire as I'd been instructed. I didn't speak until I was spoken to, which proved to be a good move. She only waited three minutes before deciding to talk.

"I don't understand you, Thalia," she said suddenly, staring into the fire blindly.

"…L-lady Artemis?" I stammered.

She looked at me, her hard gray gaze piercing through my mask of feigned indifference towards however she expected to punish me.

"I don't understand how your mind works," she said, as though she'd been waiting to let this all come out for a long time now. "I don't understand what you feel—not like I understand my other Hunters. Not like I understand Phoebe, or Melissa, or Ianthe, or even Polyxena, and I've known Polyxena since she was born." Lady Artemis sighed. "And while they've all had their chances, you haven't had yours."

I had no idea what to say, so I settled for what I hoped was a completely confused expression.

She almost smiled at my face. "I believe your time has come, Thalia. I really do."


End file.
